Vicki Lionberger, Recipe Tester

A list of all the recipes Vicki Lionberger has tested.

A sidecar cocktail, ice cubes and a dried cherry garnish, in a highball glass with a sugared rim.

Sidecar Cocktail

Created during Prohibition, this collision of Cognac, orange liqueur, and lemon isn’t for the faint of heart—nor for the slight of tolerance.

A white casserole dish with a roasted, spiced chicken it in, flanked by a dish of avocado salad and a bowl of lime wedges.

Peruvian Roast Chicken

This anything-but-boring bird borrows its Peruvian accent from a technicolor dream coat of paprika, lemon, garlic, and cumin.

A layered white cake with white frosting and covered with large strips of coconut, sitting on a white cake stand.

Coconut Cake

Flaunting an always-stunning, goes-with-anything white, this coconut cake glams up dinner parties, bridal showers, weddings, birthdays, and Tuesday nights.

A lamb burger on half a bun topped with grilled Spanish onions.

Lamb Burger ~ Bifteki Arniou

Definitely a nonconformist, this beauty of a burger melds lamb, pork, grilled onion, mustard, parsley, dill, fennel, cumin, lemon, and scallion. We dare you.

A yellow bowl filled with strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry Ice Cream

The tempered sweetness of this spectacular strawberry ice cream relies on in-season strawberries rather than obscene amounts of sugar for flavor.

Tray of roast chicken pieces with pancetta, olives, and garlic cloves

Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Olives

“One of the best chicken recipes ever!” “Crisp-skinned.” “Juicy.” “Aromatic.” “Easy.” “Gorgeous.” “Heavenly.” That’s what we’re hearing from folks who’ve tried it.

Several cut cinnamon pecan blondies on a white platter.

Cinnamon Pecan Blondies

Chewy, buttery, and teeming with toffee flavor, these are a sophisticated take on those made-from-a-box blondies you scarfed down with your carton of milk in the school cafeteria.

Bite-size bacon and cheese scones with smoked bacon and melted Asiago on top on a parchment-lined baking sheet

Bite-Size Bacon and Cheese Scones

Cute as a button, and not much bigger, these buttery, bacony scones are the most diminutive and darned good biscuits we’ve had in recent memory. Maybe ever.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

Roasted Sweet Potato and Feta Salad

There’s a lot to like here. The caramelized sweetness of sweet potatoes and onions. The salty and tangy creaminess of feta. And the knowing that you’re doing something decent for yourself without it tasting like penance.

Two whole chickens and whole garlic heads in a cast iron pan

Skillet Roast Chicken

This sassy roast chicken gets its moist meat and ultra-crisp skin from the two-step process of searing it in a skillet then sliding the whole thing in the oven. Simplicity.

A banana cream pie, topped with pillowy meringue in a glass pie dish with a vase of daffodils beside it.

Banana Cream Pie

Behold, the pie that prompted Beth M. Howard’s parents’ marriage proposal. One taste and we understood why. We think you will, too.

Layers of zucchini, summer squash, and eggplant cooked together and garnished with basil for this summer vegetable gratin.

Summer Vegetable Gratin

What to do with late summer abundance? Chef Alain Ducasse’s fancy-pants interpretation of a Provençal classic.

Sport Pepper Sauce

A staple down South, these pickled peppers and the hot, hot, hot solution that bathes them have a kick that’s as fiesty as it appears.

The Derby

The Derby Cocktail

Bourbon. Curaçao. Sweet vermouth. Lime. We’re sad we didn’t concoct this comforting little ditty. But we’re glad somebody did.

Sautéed Chicken Liver on Toast

Tuscan through and through, this classic first course snazzes up chicken livers with capers, butter, onion, anchovies, and a splash of that other Tuscan tradition.